Ilia Averbukh

Ilia Izyaslavich Averbukh (Илья Изяславич Авербух, correctly spelled "Ilya"; born 18 December 1973) is a Russian ice dancer. With his then-wife Irina Lobacheva, he is the 2002 Olympic silver medalist, the 2002 World champion and the 2003 European champion.

With Marina Anissina, he is the 1990 and 1992 World Junior champion.

Career
Averbukh started skating at the age of 5. He initially competed with Marina Anissina. They won two World Junior Championships (1990 and 1992). Averbukh teamed up with Irina Lobacheva in 1992. After the Goodwill Games in the summer of 1994 their coaches moved with many of their students to the United States to train at the University of Delaware. Lobacheva and Averbukh joined them the next year.

In September 2001, Lobacheva injured her knee in training, causing them to miss the Grand Prix season. They won the silver medal at the 2002 Olympics behind Marina Anissina / Gwendal Peizerat.

Lobacheva / Averbukh won gold at the 2002 World Championships and at the 2003 European Championships. They retired from competition at the end of the 2002–2003 season.

Post-competitive career
Following his retirement from competitive skating, Averbukh became a producer of skating shows and tours. Among his projects are Ice Symphony/Ice Age; City Lights; Bolero (a television show pairing skaters with prima ballerinas); and Small Stories of a Big City, an ice show during the 2012 Olympics in London. In January 2013, Averbukh was named an ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Averbukh works as a choreographer. His past and current clients include:


 * Yulia Lipnitskaya
 * Ksenia Makarova
 * Evgenia Medvedeva
 * Niina Petrõkina
 * Elena Radionova
 * Sofia Samodurova
 * Elizaveta Tuktamysheva
 * Dmitri Aliev
 * Mikhail Kolyada
 * Maxim Kovtun
 * Evgeni Semenenko
 * Sergei Voronov
 * Elena Ilinykh/Ruslan Zhiganshin
 * Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin
 * Nelli Zhiganshina/Alexander Gazsi

Programs
(with Lobacheva)

Hall of Fame
Averbukh is Jewish  and elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame's induction class of 2015.

Other sports
Averbukh will play a role in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Bandy World Championship.

Personal life
Lobacheva and Averbukh married in 1995. Their son, Martin, was born in 2004. They divorced in 2007.

Since December 20, 2020, he has been married to the Russian actress Elizaveta Arzamasova.

On August 14, 2021, the couple had a son.

Politics
In 2023, he stated that Russian athletes should boycott the Olympics if the pre-requisite for their participation is the condemnation of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Trivia
In April 2023, Averbukh was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government, with all his assets in Ukraine frozen and a 50-year ban on entering the country, due to his support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.